American Academy of Pediatrics call for stricter laws to protect children from chemicals

The U.S. EPA, National Academy of Sciences, American Public Health Association, and American Academy of Pediatrics, among others, have voiced concerns about the danger that pesticides pose to children. The body of evidence in scientific literature shows that pesticide exposure can adversely affect a child’s neurological, respiratory, immune, and endocrine system, even at low levels. Several pesticides, such as pyrethrins and pyrethroids, organophosphates and carbamates, are also known to cause or exacerbate asthma symptoms.

American Academy of Pediatrics call for stricter laws to protect children from chemicals .

In a policy paper from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Jerome Paulson, of the AAP’s Council on Environmental Health, and of Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C writes: “It is a fact that children face unique hazards from pesticide exposure. They take in more pesticides relative to their body weight than adults in the food they eat and air they breathe.” “Children are not little adults. Their bodies are different and their behaviors are different. That means that their exposures to chemicals in the environment are different, and the way their bodies (break down) those chemicals are different. Kids may be especially vulnerable to chemicals during important periods in development, when their brains and bodies are changing quickly the consequences of that may hit kids the hardest, and in unpredictable ways.,”